saunff da saga

i was eating out with my parents that night. went to an old favourite of mine called mirch masala. i had been craving for cheese naan, murgh methi malai and hot gulab jamun with chocolate ice cream for a long time. so there i was, too busy concentrating on my food to notice anything else but somehow this one did not manage to escape my eye. no i am not talking of eye candy but just a very minor incident that stayed with me. There was this 'firang' couple sitting at the table opposite to ours ( europian i think) and at that very moment their bill had arrived along with the customary bowl of mouri/saunff with mishri (indian version of mouth fresheners) . yes i am writing about an unimportant, insignificant, inconsequential bowl of saunff. it is something that i am so used to that i suppose i have always taken it for granted. but that incident forced me to spare a thought for a poor little bowl of saunff. i had never before in my life seen anybody stare so suspiciously at a bowl of saunff . i tried to imagine what was going through the couple's mind but just failed to come up with any plausible explanation as to how a bowl full of saunff could instigate such apprehension. maybe indian cuisine with all its abundant mirch and masalas was playing excruciating games with their tender dispositions and that had prompted such a reaction but i shall never really know for sure. As for saunff it shall continue to please customers after a good dinner and also enjoy occassional paper napkin outings(if u kno wat i mean)

we came, we saw and we waited...

indian standard time - bad
west bengal standard time- worse
It was debo and me, sitting there, amidst a few social workers who munched on jhalmuri and cracked extremely bad jokes. we were waiting to be delegated some work...and a long wait it was. As we sat there on the dusty sofa, i was confused( as usual) and was wondering what to do, how to behave, whether to laugh politely or to take the liberty to grimace at the poor display of sense of humour that surrounded me. My thoughts suddenly disrupted ( due to the arrival of two bowls of jhalmuri for us), i turned to talk to debo. Seeing the hassled look on his face i ventured to ask him what was wrong. he whispered- "my butt is aching!". Although people might find this complain rather strange but everyone acquainted with debo are aware of the sorry fact that unlike everyone else he is unfortunately not blessed with an arse per say, so if he sits in the same posture for a long time, his bony bottom tends to revolt.
After giving him a sympathetic pat on his arm, i returned to my thoughts. i realised that having nothing to do, absolutely no intellectual or physical exertion(except for munching on jhal muri), especially with lunch long overdue was quite frustrating. I concluded that waiting with repressed hunger and odd "butt pains" can be really tiresome especially when there is no way out but to sit like demure, soft spoken students representing their alma mater.